Maybe most of you know this ...

but pandemics are not new. It's kind of a depressing topic in one way, but it does go to show you that what the world is experiencing has happened quite often before.

Pandemics in History

-Plague of Athens: 430 B.C. - lasted 5 years .. killed perhaps 100,000

-Antonine Plague: A.D. 165-180 ... killed over 5 million in the Roman Empire.

-Plague of Cyprian: A.D. 250-271 ... 5000 people a day were dying in the city of Rome at the height of this plague

-Plague of Justinian: A.D. 541-542 .... bubonic plague that killed up to 10% of the world's population ..

-The Black Death: 1346-1353 ... killed half of Europe's population

-Cocoliztli epidemic: 1545-1548 ... killed 15 million inhabitants of Mexico and Central America ..

-Great Plague of London: 1665-1666

-Great Plague of Marseille: 1720-1723

-Russian plague: 1770-1772
(the above 3 plagues killed hundreds of thousands by most estimates)

-Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic: 1793 - killed 10% of the city population in 4 months

-Flu pandemic: 1889-1890 - killed nearly a million people around the world

-Spanish Flu: 1918-1920 ..estimated 500 million people caught the Spanish Flu and at least one million of them died.

-Asian Flu: 1957-1958 .. killed close to a million people

-H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic: 2009-2010 .. killed between several hundred thousand and 1/2 million